Agathe Sochat, hooker for the France team. Norbert Scanella
For the first day of the Women’s 6 Nations Tournament, the XV of France leaves Italy with the four points.
Ballotted by Italy, the French women’s team won their first match of the Six Nations Tournament on Sunday in Parma (12-22) for the first of the duo of coaches of the women’s XV of France, Gaëlle Mignot and David Ortiz. Les Bleues take the provisional third place, since they did not pocket the offensive bonus.
Deprived of freshly retired executives (Laure Sansus, Céline Ferer, Marjorie Mayans, Safi N’Diaye), the Bleues wanted to put on an ambitious game by keeping the ball to undermine the Italian defense. The numerous errors and the difficulties in gaining the advantage line made this game plan almost impossible. Bourdon first tried his hand at pressure foot play (5e7e) to put the opposing third defensive curtain in difficulty, with more or less success.
The Tricolores then decided to attack their opponents frontally, to mark them and find spaces, but technical faults followed one another. Taking advantage of the inefficiency of the visitors, Italy showed efficiency thanks to an interval catch from Sgorbini, then a victorious stint from Franco while powerful.
French reaction
An electroshock for the French who immediately reacted thanks to her scrum, which pushed the opposing front line back several meters. The homecoming races of Ménager then Vernier allowed the bronze medalists of the last World Cup to regain the advantage (7-8, 27e). A few moments later, they finally scored a first-hand try with a great run from Arbez (7-13, 34th).
The Transalpines imposed their rhythm in the second period, with a big highlight of ten minutes, rewarded by a second try signed D’inca in the corner (49th). Les Bleues took advantage of their superiority in closed scrum to occupy the 22 opposing meters but were clumsy with the ball in hand. After yet another shelling near the goal line, Tremoulière dismissed Boulard who passed on a step for Boujard, who scored the third try (76th).
After this non-bonus victory, Les Bleues will travel to Ireland next Saturday (4:15 p.m.) where the objective will be to obtain the offensive bonus to keep the hope of winning their 7e the Six Nations tournament after 2002, 2004, 2005, 2014, 2016, 2018. As a reminder, the English, favorites of the competition and vice-world champions, took the offensive bonus during the big victory over Scotland ( 58-7) Saturday. They had achieved the Grand Slam last season.
